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Welcome to my personal guide on how to play Veigar! First things first, if you don't know the reference of the title to Nuklear Power, go here: HADOKEN! (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/20/episode-007-kamehameha-or-something/)

After reading that, and possibly the next one, or hell as many as you want it's an amazing comic, you'll understand what type of Veigar I build. Nuke. Everything.

Secondly, who am I and why am I writing a guide? I've been in Beta since mid-July, around since Veigar came out. He was the second hero I tried and I've played him a TON since then. I've theorycrafted, tested builds, argued theories, and constantly tweaked my playstyle to try and maximize my Veigar's effectiveness. The end result has been many a game stomp, a strong confidence in my playstyle and my builds, and somewhat recognition and fear of my Veigar in game.

The attached screenshots show the max ranges of Veigar's abilities. Primordial Burst has the same range as Baleful Strike. There are also two other screenshots showing simple techniques of comboing with the fringe of Event Horizon and farming neutrals with Dark Matter. Note: Look at the image of Event Horizon's graphic overlayed by the targeting reticule, this can give you a good sense of where it will actually land. The perimeter is the inner circle, but the stunning area can be anywhere between that circle and the outermost one.

~~~~NOTE: The HUD in the screenshots is the outdated one that was used during the beta, I just haven't felt the need to update the screenshots.

I am not making a guide that will allow you to get by, I'm posting what I believe is the most optimal way to play the champion. Accept it, reject it, modify it, I don't care. I just hope it makes you a better Veigar player by the end if it. On to the good stuff!

CHAMPION INFORMATION

Ok I lied, this isn't the good stuff. Pretty boring, but knowing the base mechanics can be very useful. Official Page: Veigar
(http://beta.leagueoflegends.com/champions/view/0_9_25_21/45/veigar_the_tiny_master_of_evil)
-----[Hero Stats] (Taken from Official Page):

*ENTROPY* [Passive]
Veigar steals from each nearby enemy champion 20% of their Ability Power. The amount stolen per target cannot exceed five times Veigar's level.

PRE-GAME SETUP

-----[Summoner Spells]

Summoner Spells can vary depending on personal taste. I'm going to rank them into tiers based on what I recommend for Veigar.

*Definitely worth it*: Teleport, Exhaust, Ignite, Cleanse (I use Teleport and Exhaust almost exclusively, but I see a lot of people using ignite with improved nowadays, also cleanse is so imba atm.)

*If you really want to*: Ghost, Flash (Not my personal recommendation, but I can see these too)

*If your team needs it*: Clairvoyance, Rally, Fortify, Promote (Team support skills, get them if you must)

*Don't*: Heal, Smite, Revive, Clarity (Pointless, You will only ever kill golem, have no farming problems, clarity is not as useful as other skills because the mana regen it gives is minimal and easily covered with items, and you shouldn't be in the middle of a fight enough to use heal)

-----[Runes]

Alright, finally. Done with learning background information and ready to...get ready. First set up you'll want to make is what runes you'll use. Insight runes are now red primary, so there is really only one way to go. However, yellow runes are separated.

Blue Force: All force is obvious for blue. Total is ~27 AP at level 18. Reasoning for this is more AP is always good (Duh). AP helps out with last hitting, and is a bulk of your damage.
HOWEVER: I have been running cooldown lately in order to counter people with banshee's and flash. Getting extra spells off is very useful too, so choose your runes here depending on who you're against. If you play people that don't hard counter you often, ap can be good, otherwise I'd stick with -cooldown runes. The ones that scale with level are cheaper iirc.

~~~~Tip: While Potency runes are more alluring than Force runes early, they do not scale well at all. IIRC Force runes are equal to potency runes around level 5. Since there won't be much action before then, just go force. HOWEVER, Quints scale differently. Force Quints don't catch up to Potency until around level 12-13, so that is a personal choice of if you want to sacrifice a few ap early game or mid/late game.

Red Insight: Insight is now red primary so the magic pen is the obvious choice for this slot. If tooltips are correct, insight gives around 7.5 magic pen. This is a decent damage boost and stacks well with the new magic pen options in the game.

Yellow ????: Yellow is where it is really personal taste on what you get. You can go for a primary stat that gives a little more, like health or evasion, or you can go force for another ~16 ap at 18. I've used both force and evasion personally.

Quint Force/Potency/Insight: This is another personal choice. As I said before, quintessences scale differently so potency are actually better than force until around level 12-13. Personally I'm using potency atm. Insight is also nice because magic pen is a good stat, however I don't use them in quints because there is a ton of magic pen options in game now. What not to do: Mana regen, Reduced cooldown, pretty much anything else except for health is a big no-no. Force and Insight do a ton and other "wants" can be compensated for. For instance, you may think you need more cooldown reduction, but with utility spec, elixir of brilliance, and golem buff...it's useless. Mana regen is another thing that may seem like a good idea, but isn't. Any issues with mana are handled by items masteries and teleport.

-----[Masteries]

Masteries are much more versatile than skill build for maximum effectiveness. You can really bend the rules here depending on your personal tastes. A 21/0/9 build isn't bad, but here is my favorite mastery spec:

~~~~Tip: As you're levelling, I'd probably try and get the mana talents from utility first, along with the cripple from offense. (Perseverance, Expanded Mind, Meditation)

(1) Spatial Accuracy**I get this because I love using teleport as a regen tool**
(3) Perseverance
(4) Expanded Mind
(3) Awareness **Take one from here if you want the Greed mastery**
(3) Meditation
(3) Quickness
(3) Intelligence
(1) Presence of the Master

SKILL BUILD

My skill build is something that I have tweaked with many, many, many times. Also, you can ask people both on IRC or that I play with and I contemplate and theorycraft and argue it a LOT. However, this is the build that I have come to love and have introduced to many other people that have also enjoyed it. The build focuses on Baleful because it is a highly underrated skill. It has a pretty low mana cost, adds AP, has a very nice range and does sizeable damage most of the game (scales down a little bit late game, but dominates early)

*Some people like to get event horizon 2. This is viable considering dark matter doesn't do a whole lot at 1 and costs a chunk of mana. I personally have been doing this more often, especially when I'm playing with a low mana pool. Personal choice.

Reasoning: This build will be much explained in the breakdowns of different stages of the game. Mostly, Baleful Strike dominates early game, Dark Matter dominates late game, The spammability of them all blends into HADOKENS!!!!

ITEM BUILDS

I have now added a couple more builds to my originals. There are two builds that I enjoy completely. These builds are what I find to be (mostly) optimal. You can also try and mix-and-match these if you wish, because there is some overlaps.

-----[Low AP vs big Damage]

Ideal Game Length: 20-35 Mins (Most relevant to current patch)

This build, or at least a possible variant of it, is fast becoming a favorite of mine. The Deathfire Grasp activate is also a really nice bonus damage, on top of chewing champions like cho'gath apart. It also stacks with AP, but with my experience it ends up not having as much AP as the other builds. However, with the magic pen and utility it still does a ton of damage, I think the haunting guise helps out quite a bit early game too.

Disclaimer: The way I end up doing this usually makes my inventory horribly messy until items are made, but I've liked it. Feel free to switch up orders as you see fit. This build greatly varies depending on how the game is going. Usually keep the catalyst for a decent amount of time (level 12-14) before turning it into a RoA, and make the deathfire grasp either before/after that depending on farm.

This is one of the new builds. I have been messing with it, and it does work, but it DEFINITELY isn't as safe as the others. It really depends on your early game and awareness. This build is also nice if you are going to be against a ton of magic resist, but like I said, it's risky! However, for sake of including it, I'll post it anyways!

This build was my favorite by far. The last month or so of patches have changed a bunch of items and strategies, but this definitely still works. The tear early allows extreme harass, tons of AP farming, and generally makes the game go smoother. The rod of ages adds everything you can benefit from, enough hp to survive all game with, and both it and the Zhonya's synergize with making the archangel's later.

Assuming 2 Elixirs of Brilliance throughout game:
Total Cost = 11,475This will outlast the length of most games, if the game is still going definitely go Lich Bane next!

-----[Anti-Caster / Veigar Mirror]

Ideal Game Length: 30-45 Mins

This build is as the header says, a good build when facing another Veigar or a generally magic damage heavy team. A Magic Heavy team would be any team consisting of 3 or more champions that deal primarily Magic Damage. Goes for more mana regen and resist than straight damage and mana.

Alright, so if you haven't already noticed, there are a few items that people assume are practically made for Veigar, and I don't often get these. I will address these seperately:

Fiendish Codex: I know the cooldown and cheapness of this item is alluring, I know many people that have gotten this on Veigar. Don't. There are better, cheaper/free alternatives. With the 9% from masteries and the Golem buff giving 25%, you're at 34% reduction already. Since the cap is 40%, the brilliance elixirs that you should constantly have mid-late game cover the last 6%. Only get this if you are against high-hp enemies and making Deathfire Grasp.

Mejai's Soulstealer: Ahhhh...the soulstealer. The bane of my arguments. The "made for veigar" item. The cheapest AP available. No. It's a trap. Sure, the AP is extremely cheap, and Veigar is an AP champion, but that's looking at it wrong. Strengthening a champion's strengths just makes their weaknesses weaker (hope that made sense). Veigar already can amass AP easily, what he needs are a little hp and a bunch of mana. Soulstealer doesn't give either of these. It may give mana back on kill if you charge it up, but that doesn't help get the kills to charge it. Nor does it ensure you will have that effect. People that get a soulstealer early lack in mana or hp or usually both. This means that they can't cast near as many spells whether it is because of out of mana or running back low on health. This means that they are doing less overall damage than the person who can stay in the fight longer. So this must mean that you're going to have less AP later right? Maybe. This is only because magic penetration is available now, so you will NOT be doing less damage, I assure you. Your damage will be more than with soulstealer. More hero kills and more mana for farming allow for more AP gain on top of the better synergy between items.

Rylai's Scepter: Since the recent Rylai change I've seen people recommending or buying this on Veigar. This is another no-no. Veigar's playstyle is not to slow and chase people and Event Horizon's range already covers any chasing you should need. Veigar is a master of letting people come to him and then tearing them to pieces quickly, making the slow worthless.

Guinsoo's Rageblade: You're kidding right?

EARLY GAME (Levels 1-7)

Alright, I'm not gonna lie, most games this phase will be boring. If you're not fortunate enough to get the solo, take into consideration some things when picking lanes. First off, try and make sure that you're splitting the melee apart. Generally a double melee lane can get walked over, so try and avoid it and help a melee out. Secondly, you are a last-hitter. You don't want to lane with an Annie, a Gangplank, or a Sion that will be fighting with you for last hits. Lastly, take into consideration the amazing stun that you get at level 2. This combo'd with a skillshot like Amumu, Morgana, or Blitzcrank can mean pretty easy early kills. Overall though Veigar is a solid soloer, so he can handle himself with most lane partners and matchups.

There really isn't much to do with Veigar early. Most of this time is spent last hitting with Baleful and your auto attack. You really don't have much strength here so don't worry about the enemy champion unless an opportunity arises. This means that you really shouldn't use any mana on the enemy champion at all unless they've taken hits from your ally or the tower. You don't have the power to finish yet, so they'll just regen, so don't do it. You do not rely on Dark Matter, instead you utilize your abilities range. Spend most of the time running away if there are no low creeps, or running in and hitting if they're low. There's no point in standing next to creeps that are at full life, they give the same exp and gold and you stay out of harm if you stay back til they are low.

So how do you get kills at this stage in the game? Always be ready to event horizon. Often champions will get anxious to screw with your squishy self. Also often times they will be willing to take a hit from the tower to do this. Funny thing, you can event horizon them when they do this, then run up exhaust them and baleful them. If the tower kills them you won't get ap, but chances are it'll be first blood and extremely worth it. Bonus if you can get a double kill in this way (It's surprising how often this opportunity arises during early ganks.)

Ok, now it's nearing the end of early game. You have some form of mana or mana regen and hopefully a little AP. At around level 7-8 you'll want to go back to base, hopefully buy your boots, and teleport back. With your mana pool replenished it's time to try for your first intentional attempt at a kill. It really isn't that hard, because most people don't see it coming. Act normal and use baleful practically on cooldown. If a semi-squishy champion is close enough, hit them with it, otherwise keep hitting creeps. Once they're at about half (depends on champion you're against, kind of get a feel for it with baleful damage) get ready to combo. If exhaust is up, it should work flawlessly. Wait for them to come close, preferably when they think they can attack you, drop a dark matter + event horizon's perimeter right on them. Try and get an exhaust in before matter drops, baleful, ult, scream HADOKEN, profit. With the recent primordial buff, you don't often even need a dark matter or sometimes horizon. If you've harassed enough, just rush in and exhaust, baleful, ult. Most of the time, people won't expect nor know what happened. On to mid game....

MID GAME (Levels 8-14)

Alright, so you've made it through Early game. The beautiful thing about Veigar is that a couple deaths early don't really hurt him. Hell, if you get a kill or more just about any death doesn't hurt him. Mid Game is where Veigar shines the most. You MUST NOT be afraid of dying especially in team fights. This doesn't mean be stupid, but trust me, if you played early game right, your enemies will be more scared of you then you are of them.

So you should be working on your rod of ages early in this phase of the game, roaming around nuking everything you can. From now on you have a large amount of mana and/or regen, especially if you have golem buff, baleful all creep kills that you can, dark matter all ranged and neutral creeps you can. Push any first towers that are still up.

Towards Late Mid game you should notice a shift in the focus of your damage. As you level it, dark matter will shift towards your main spike damage and pushing tool. However, especially during team fights, remember that Baleful's cooldown is so low that you should NEVER save it. Cast it on any and every hero in range at any moment. Save dark matter and horizon combo for kills (Or defensively to save teammates, use people's tendency to avoid dark matters to your advantage) or chipping hesitant people down. Get Golem buff whenever possible, roam with your team, hide in the brush, stay on the fringe of battles, and MOAR HADOKEN!.

HOWEVER: If you know you're about to try and combo someone, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE MANA FOR IT. Highlight the ranks, do the math real quick, even if you roughly estimate. As a rule of thumb, you should have around 500 mana pre-11 and 600 post-11. After that, you won't need to worry about it.

Roam and HADOKEN!

LATE GAME (Levels 15-18)

You can usually judge your impact on the game when it moves towards late game. You still have the power to combo people in one swipe, but by now I'm sure the enemy has reacted to you. They probably have some form of magic resist, are playing more careful, or just plain seek you out. However, by now you should be rising above 500-600 AP and not really care. Continue comboing people in the face, punishing them for being aggressive, and altogether raining hell on the enemy team. Also, The enemy should NEVER be able to push with you alive. Even if they have all 5 and are pounding on a tower, you can run up and combo their nearest cluster and get away free, taking a quarter or a half of all their hp with you. You are a monster. They know this and don't like you. You know this and really don't give a ****. Keep roaming with your team, teleporting back to stop pushes, and spamming your spells as much as possible.

TIPS

Always try and have an Elixir of Brilliance on post-level 13ish. Also try and get golem buff whenever able.

Hang around the tanks on your team. They can distract enemies while you blow them apart.

If you do bad in a game, analyze what went wrong. Don't blame matchup, composition, your team, anything. Knowing what YOU did wrong makes it so you don't do it again later. Veigar honestly doesn't have many bad matchups. I have some troubles with good Tristanas and Corkis, but nothing un-manageable.

Veigar is not just an anti-caster. +25% damage based on mana is a bonus, it doesn't stop you from wrecking Tryndamere in the course of an Event Horizon stun.

Mind games are very very very important to Veigar. Know when your opponent is getting ready to attack you, know where you're going to event horizon to stop it, and make sure you punish them hard for thinking you were vulnerable.

Related to mind games, the most visible and closest proximity are usually the driving factors in who gets targeted. DONT let that be you! Hide around corners, in brush, far behind people.

Veigar's passive works wonders that you often don't even notice. However, if you feel enemies may be nearby you can watch your stat sheet because your passive will affect enemy champs that aren't in vision. Seeing your AP increase can be a good warning.

If your spells are off cooldown, use them, if they're on cooldown you better be spacing yourself away or chasing someone that is one spell from death.

Dark Matter gives a small vision radius when cast. Use this to check brush or around obstacles instead of yourself, it's quicker and may save your life.

Dark Matter is not only a great lane farming tool, but also a great neutral farming tool! During mid-game, when you pass by the small creep camps (Wraiths/Wolves/2 golems) throw out a dark matter. If it's the golems you may need to baleful too, but hey that's 2 extra AP! (Look at attached screenshot for example)

CONCLUSION

Thanks for reading my guide! Made it a lot more in-depth and complicated than initially intended, but oh well. Hope everyone gets something out of it; Veigar is an amazing hero. He was pretty strong before the last three patches and now he's definitely strong. He's also a champion that takes getting used to, spacing on horizon and dark matter take some getting used to. Knowing when you can screw with the enemy and what they can do in return is definitely related to experience. If anyone has any questions or wants to play any games or anything, ask them here, contact me on QuakeNet IRC (#lolbeta), or add my summoner (same name) in-game.

This is a great guide... can't wait to try out some new strategies. I have some questions for you:

1. Does having one Ryze on the opponent's team warrant the Anti-Caster build?

2. Around what point in the game / champion level do you begin purchasing Brilliant Elixirs?

3. How often do you purchase Mana / Health potions throughout the game?

4. Are there games where you are heavily pressured early game and have trouble last-hitting creep with BS? If so, will it have a big effect on your capabilities in mid / late game?

5. In an average game, what is the minimum level you'd need to start some jungle runs?

6. Do you have any tips for maintaining lane control with your build when Dark Matter upgrades come later in the game?

7. Could you post a couple of screenshots on how to use Event Horizon appropriately? Maybe show some techniques for how to evade attackers, or how to set up your combo.

8. If you have the option to select a partner to share a lane with, what Champions do you find work well with Veigar?

Thanks!

Some great questions, many of which I planned on adding to the tips section, but had class start so I'll answer em here first:

1. No, Your ult is anti-ryze enough. I'm talking 3 or more champions that deal a lot of magic damage.

2. Usually around level 13-14+. When I buy a brilliance elixir usually signifies when I start hunting.

3. Only the one of each at start.

4. No. Some lanes will be difficult such as when facing Ashes. However, this really only limits your last hits from Auto attack, you can still Baleful Stirke and it's easy to baleful creeps even if the tower is attacking them. Just remember that the tower is your friend early game.

5. Uh, honestly I've never monitored what level I start this at. Usually it's about after I get my rod of ages I start just getting golem whenever I see it up (or whenever there is an enemy champion that has it >)

6. Baleful, alot. The creeps will continue to fight as usual, you don't have to influence that. However, baleful adds a lot more control over the enemy champions. As said in early game, there isn't much to do then. Just farm get your tear. However, after you get your tear you can take over the lane easily. Your mana pool will be plenty to throw balefuls at your enemy whenever he gets too close. Often, I can keep them at their tower at level 7-8. A low cooldown, low mana cost, decent damage, pretty good range, undodgeable nuke is really much more versatile than dark matter.

7. Will do when I get back and get a chance to.

8. The group I play with knows my Veigar and always lets me solo :> If you don't have a hard carry I'd push for the solo, otherwise champions that synergize well with event horizon and don't have to last hit (annie, gangplank, etc). Blitzcrank, amumu, and morgana are all great because they can easily land their skill shot off of a horizon stun, and later game any tank that can distract people from you are your best friend.

Quote:

Shido:

The title got me curious, though I never exactly figured out why you would choose such a name ;o

Simple! Veigar is to be played like Black Mage, don't care who they are, just HADOKEN them in the face! (Hadoken can be seen as casting all 4 spells and erasing their champion with them I think)

Nice guide, I've never really played Veigar and then I gave this guide a try cause I wanted to play him. Ended up going against a 3+ caster team (Ryze, Morganna, Annie) and used your anti-caster setup. At the end I was like 12-2-4 or something. I'm pretty sure I 2-3 shotted Morganna near the end and that really made me feel like a beast.